Environmental Change and Challenge

Course outline:
The course explores the nature of physical environmental change as manifested through processes associated with biological, phyiscal and human components of ecosystems with a focus on southern Africa. The recent geological past (the late Quaternary) provides a longer term perspective that enables recent and contemporary environmental changes to be placed in context. The nature and extent of human impact on landscapes is examined along with a consideration of how conservation efforts are applied in order to mitigate these changes. Environmental change is conceptualised as geohazard; and disaster risk and disaster risk profiling is introduced at the regional and local scale. The course further considers key land surface processes in a range of environments and how these respond to environmental dynamics.